The World To Myself

It rained all day, but that didn’t stop the boys and I from having another great Sunday. My friend Nico is a car enthusiast and has a group of friends who all have cool sports cars and race cars. He invited us to their car club brunch this morning at Flat White Coffee.

Even in the rain the boys were super excited to see the cars. I was excited about the special brunch menu they organized - French toast, tomato bisque, and their delicious signature coffee.

After brunch I had planned on taking the boys to the mall to hang out and look around, but Osamu ended up falling down in the coffee shop parking lot and bruised his knee and got his pants soaking wet so we had to go home earlier than scheduled. He cried all the way home. His fall wasn't that bad. I saw it. But when Eri and I were checking out his injuries our completely non-medically-trained diagnosis included twisted ankle, broken bone, and dislocated knee.

Turns out all he needed was a bandaid. Within thirty minutes he was back to his mischievous ways.

I keep a list of things I want to do with the boys and today we got to the next item on that list. Watercolor painting. It was a hit.

Rain doesn't stop me from getting my 8 kilometer walk in. When the boys went upstairs for their nap time I donned my rain suit, complete with waterproof shoe covers, and headed out. Walking in the rain is therapeutic. The air is so flavorful. No one else is out so it feels like I have the world to myself. When I get back and strip off my weather-proof layer and plop down on the couch and look out the window at the continuing precipitation I feel that much more pleased with myself. I didn't let the elements stop me from getting my daily goal accomplished.

Eri made us another amazing dinner. Simple and delicious. One of my favorite things is her sweet potato tempura dipped in ponzu.

I opened a bottle of chianti and Eri and I lingered at the table talking about big plans after the boys had long since finished their dinner and rough-housed in the living room.

Comments

Mr. Blue Sky

Man, I conked out so hard on the living room floor tonight. Right after bath time, before story time. I barely remember. Completely exhausted. Big adventure day. Another in a long series I hope the boys will remember when they’re older... our first IMAX movie, a downtown city outing, and some life lessons in the game center. We left the house at 9:15 a.m. and didn’t get back until nearly 6 p.m., totally spent but full of pizza and memories. The Wild Robot in IMAX was totally stunning. The scale, the colors, the sound. We could feel every gust of wind and rustle of leaves. I made sure we had prime seats, row G, right in the center. Two big buckets of popcorn too, which, according to Kenzo and Osamu, I absolutely should not be sharing. “You should get your own!” they kept saying. I think a little bit of popcorn thievery is well within my rights as the papa. After the movie, we headed through the cold and wind across to the game center on the other side of Sendai Station. Being...

Not About Baseball

I stayed up past my bedtime again last night. I almost made it. I watched a couple of episodes of Ted Lasso and came to a good stopping point where I was satisfied with myself for enjoying some quiet TV time with my favorite show and even though it was after midnight, I was confident I could still get a pretty good night's sleep. But no. For some reason I decided it would be a good idea to just lay on the living room carpet and put on a movie. I saw the first seven or eight minutes of Goodfellas and then I woke up when the end credits were rolling with Sid Vicious' is cover of My Way . I brush my teeth and I can see the light of day already shining in through the bathroom window. "It’s almost the longest day of the year," I told myself, to at least rationalize why I'm brushing my teeth and crawling into bed at this hour. I was trying to minimize the mental anguish I regularly put on myself for not just going to bed like I should. I told Eri that I was thinking a...

Sendai vs. Tokushima

Osamu said he had to go pee, and I make it a habit to believe him most of the time. Another habit I have is taking him to go pee, much of the time. When we came out of the restroom I decided it was time for a beer, so with Osamu holding my hand we waltzed over to the food concession and I was checking out the selection, and the prices. Seven hundred yen for a draft beer. I had a feeling. It was only 500 for a whiskey cocktail (whiskey with water on the rocks) but I wasn't about to be that much of a derelict this early with my four-year-old son in tow. The tickets were free, the seats aren't bad, might as well spend seven bucks on a beer. The problem was that the dude next to us with his little boy about the same age as Mumu-chan loudly and with braggadocio you don't often see in these parts ordered a Blue Hawaii snow cone for his kid. I heard this and panicked. Last weekend at Michinoku Park I got a Blue Hawaii snow cone for Osamu and he loved it. I looked down at my l...

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